Show HN: I reverse engineered Apple's video wallpapers

Source: Hacker News

Introduction

Ever since Apple introduced their video wallpapers I wanted to be able to put custom videos there. I decided to reverse‑engineer the system to see what could be done.

Implementation

WallpaperExtensionKit.framework powers macOS wallpapers and controls what appears in the Settings app. After a lot of trial and error I was able to replicate its behavior so that custom wallpapers appear alongside the built‑in ones. An “add” button could not be placed in the Settings UI, so a companion app is provided to install the video in the correct location.

Unlike Apple’s Aerial wallpapers, the video continues playing on the desktop (not just the lock screen). The renderer drives AVSampleBufferDisplayLayer directly with PTS‑offset gapless looping, and it pauses or downshifts based on thermal state, battery level, brightness, and window occlusion.

Availability

The project is open‑source and free to use.

Comments on Hacker News (102 points, 27 comments)